Chapter 21
N ED SCRATCHED and rubbed at his blondish day-or-two-old facial stubble while he talked in his usual animated nonstop nobody-else-gets-a-word-in manner. I couldn’t help staring at his chin. Ned is fair-skinned, and I think it impresses the hell out of him that he can grow a semblance of a beard now that he’s in his forties. I do like Ned Mahoney obnoxious as he can be at times. I like the man a lot.
“Some guys, maybe a half dozen ? well armed ? came down here to rob the dealer’s lab,” he said. “They ran into some major problems, got hung up inside. Also, there are some neighborhood people who work in the lab, around a dozen or so from what we can gather. They’re trapped in there too. That’s another problem we have to deal with eventually. Then ?”
I put up a hand to stop Ned’s hyperintense ramble.
“The people you mentioned who work at the lab? People who package the drugs? They would be mostly women, mothers, grandmothers? That the case? Dealers like workers they can trust with the product.”
“See why I wanted you here?” Mahoney said, and grinned ? at least he showed me his front teeth. His tone reminded me of Jannie’s rant earlier. A little bit of a wiseass masking his vulnerability about being such a “man’s man.”
“So the drug hijackers and the drug dealers are trapped inside? Why don’t we just let them shoot each other?”
“Already been suggested,” Mahoney deadpanned. “But now we get to the good part, Alex. Here’s why you’re here. The very well-armed guys who came to jack the lab are DC SWAT. Your old compadres are the other bad guys in today’s episode of ‘Anything Can Happen and Probably Will!’ You owe me ten bucks.”
I felt sick again. I knew a lot of guys with SWAT. “You’re sure about this?”
“Oh, yeah. Couple of patrolmen heard shots in the building. They went to investigate. One uniform got gut-shot. They recognized the guys from SWAT.”
I moved my head around in circles. Suddenly my neck felt a little tight. “So the FBI’s HRT is here to fight it out with DC SWAT?”
“Kind of looks that way, my man. Welcome to the suck and all that. You got any bright ideas so far?”
Yeah, I thought: Leave here right now. Go back to the kids. It’s a Saturday. I’m off.
I handed Ned the ten dollars from our bet.